Remote Supervision of Client Device Activity

ABSTRACT

A server device may receive a series of at least two screen capture representations of a graphical user interface on a client device. A first active window for a first screen capture representation of the series and a second active window for a second screen capture representation of the series may be determined. The first screen capture representation may have been screen captured by the client device at a first time and the second screen capture representation may have been screen captured by the client device at a second time. A first application associated with the first active window and a second application associated with the second active window may be identified, at least one of which may be a pre-determined target application. Based on the identified applications, an activity log for the client device may be determined.

BACKGROUND

As workforces become more dispersed and outsourced, computer-mediatedtasks are more frequently distributed to users of remote client devices.These remote users may not work in a normal business setting or duringnormal business hours, and may be compensated based on the amount oftime that they work, as well as certain task-level goals. Unlike intraditional business settings, supervising remote users is challengingand many current arrangements require that the remote users self-reporttheir billable work. Consequently, these users are provided withopportunities to overbill or commit other types of fraud.

SUMMARY

Since remote users typically perform their tasks, at least partially, ona computing device (e.g., a personal computer, tablet computer, wirelesscomputing device, etc.), it may be beneficial for that device to operatesoftware that remotely supervises the activities of these users. Indoing so, the remote supervision software may be able to identify howmuch time a particular user spends on billable tasks, how long the userspends on non-billable tasks, and when the user is idle. The remotesupervision software may also be able to output an activity log of theuser's activity, summarizing the user's activity, progress towardcertain goals, and/or earnings.

One way to remotely supervise a user's client device is to have theclient device perform periodic screen captures. Each screen capture mayinclude a graphical representation of the client device's screen at thetime of the capture, and may be transmitted to a server device. At theserver device, these screen captures may be processed, either in realtime or at a later point, to determine the application that the user wasinteracting with at the time of the capture, whether the application wasa pre-determined target application that the user has been instructed tooperate, and/or what type of progress the user has made toward his orher goals. Alternatively, at least some of the processing of screencaptures may occur on the client device. From the processed series ofscreen captures, the activity log may be derived, which may in turn beused as a basis of compensating the user.

Accordingly, a first example embodiment may involve a server devicereceiving a series of at least two screen capture representations of agraphical user interface on a client device. The first exampleembodiment may also involve determining a first active window for afirst screen capture representation of the series and a second activewindow for a second screen capture representation of the series. Thefirst screen capture representation may have been screen captured by theclient device at a first time and the second screen capturerepresentation may have been screen captured by the client device at asecond time. The first example embodiment may further involveidentifying a first application associated with the first active windowand a second application associated with the second active window,wherein the first application was executing in the first active windowat the first time and the second application was executing in the secondactive window at the second time. At least one of the first applicationor the second application may be a pre-determined target application.The first example embodiment may additionally involve, possibly based onthe first application executing at the first time and the secondapplication executing at the second time, determining an activity logfor the client device. The activity log may identify one or more idleperiods and one or more busy periods for the pre-determined targetapplication.

In a second example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause thecomputing device to perform operations in accordance with the firstexample embodiment.

In a third example embodiment, a computing device may include at leastone processor, as well as data storage and program instructions. Theprogram instructions may be stored in the data storage, and uponexecution by the at least one processor may cause the computing deviceto perform operations in accordance with the first example embodiment.

In a fourth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the first example embodiment.

These as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, it should beunderstood that this summary and other descriptions and figures providedherein are intended to illustrate embodiments by way of example onlyand, as such, that numerous variations are possible. For instance,structural elements and process steps can be rearranged, combined,distributed, eliminated, or otherwise changed, while remaining withinthe scope of the embodiments as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a client/server networked environment, according toexample embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing of a server device, according to exampleembodiments.

FIG. 3A is a message flow diagram, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3B is another message flow diagram, according to exampleembodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts a screen capture representation, according to exampleembodiments.

FIG. 5B depicts identifying an active window of a screen capturerepresentation, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts a dashboard interface, according to example embodiments.

FIG. 7 is another flow chart, according to example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features. Other embodiments can be utilized, and otherchanges can be made, without departing from the scope of the subjectmatter presented herein.

Thus, the example embodiments described herein are not meant to belimiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of the presentdisclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in thefigures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designedin a wide variety of different configurations, all of which areexplicitly contemplated herein.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

1. Overview

As noted above, remote supervision of client devices and theirassociated users may be desirable in settings where these remote usersare performing tasks using a client device. As an illustration,throughout this specification the example of legal document review isused. However, the procedures, operations, devices and systems describedherein may be used with other types of tasks. These additional tasks mayinclude, but are not limited to, data entry, proofreading, medicalcoding, and so on. Any computer-mediated task that can be distributed toa remote workforce is a candidate for the remote supervision embodimentsdescribed herein.

Legal document review is a particularly compelling type of task forremote supervision. In U.S. lawsuits, document review is the process inwhich each party in the lawsuit sorts, analyzes, and categorizes thedocuments and data they possess, as well as the documents and datasupplied by the other parties. A primary goal of such review is todetermine which documents are sensitive and/or otherwise relevant to thecase. For instance, before providing collected documents to an opposingparty, a litigant may review each of these documents to determinewhether they are protected by privilege (e.g., attorney/clientprivilege) and/or relevant to the issues under dispute (e.g., responsiveto a discovery request from another party). Documents that are notprivileged, but are relevant, may be produced to the opposing party, butthe remaining documents typically are not.

Document review is almost exclusively electronic. Most document reviewsoftware environments use a native application that executes on thereviewers' computers, or are web-based. Through this software, thereviewers may view documents, and tag them according to various criteria(e.g., privilege and/or relevance).

In some lawsuits, tens or hundreds of thousands of documents may bereviewed. Often, the reviewers are junior attorneys, contract attorneys,paralegals, or outsourced document reviewers. These reviewers may besituated in law offices, remote offices, home offices, or even overseas.Given the volume of documents that may be reviewed even for a relativelysmall lawsuit, document review can be one of the most costly aspects oflitigation. Thus, efforts are often made to reduce the cost associatedwith these tasks.

For instance, outsourced document reviewers may charge for 8 hours ofwork per day per reviewer. However, it is difficult to quantify whethereach reviewer indeed spent an entire 8 hours per day reviewingdocuments. Some reviewers may have multiple windows open on their clientdevice's user interface, reviewing documents in one window andperforming other tasks in the remaining windows. Some of these othertasks may be non-billable and/or non-work-related, such as checkingemail, playing games, or viewing social networking sites. Further, somereviewers may keep the document review application window open, butmight not be actually reviewing documents with 100% of their time. Forexample, these reviewers may be talking to coworkers, or using theirmobile devices.

As such, it is beneficial to be able to remotely supervise documentreviewers. Manual supervision of these individuals is too timeconsuming, error prone, and costly. Instead, since the vast majority ofdocument reviewers use software tools to perform their reviews oncomputing devices, remote supervision software can be installed on thesedevices. Particularly, and as noted above, a remotely supervised clientdevice may be instructed by this software to periodically perform screencaptures. Each screen capture may include a graphical representation ofthe client device's screen at the time of the capture, and may betransmitted to a server device. At the server device, these screencaptures may be processed, either in real time or at a later point, todetermine the application that the user was interacting with at the timeof the capture, and whether the application was the document reviewapplication. Alternatively, at least some of the processing of screencaptures may occur on the client device. For instance, the client devicemay compress or perform other operations on some of the screen capturesbefore transmitting them to the server device.

From the processed series of screen captures, an activity log may bederived, which may include indications of the reviewer's busy and idleperiods. For instance, a busy period may begin when the reviewer makesthe document review application the active window on the graphical userinterface, and the busy period may end when a different application ismade the active window, or the review application has been unused for apre-determined period of time. The end of a busy period may also be thebeginning of an idle period, and such an idle period may continue untilthe reviewer makes the document review application the active windowonce again, or the reviewer begins using the review application onceagain.

A window may be considered to be “active” when the graphical userinterface is focused on the window such that any one or more of thefollowing conditions is true: (i) the active window is layered on top ofall other windows on the graphical user interface, (ii) the activewindow is distinguished from all other windows on the graphical userinterface such as having different colors or brightnesses, or (iii) allkeyboard, mouse, keypad or touchscreen interactions take place with theactive window.

Regardless, the busy period and idle period information may be storedfor billing and auditing purposes. Reviewers may be compensated based ontheir total busy time rather than their total time at a client device.Thus, a reviewer who uses a client device for 8 hours, but is idle for1.7 of these hours, is only compensated for 6.3 hours of billable work.Also, by storing representations of at least some of the screencaptures, the reviewer's activity can be audited in situations where thereviewer believes that he or she should be compensated for more billablework than recorded by the system.

The supervision and processing of screen capture representations isimpractical, if not impossible, to perform manually. In order toeffectively detect idle periods on client devices, each client devicemay perform screen captures once every second or once every few seconds.Further, in large litigations, there may be dozens of reviewersconducting document reviews for weeks on end. It would not be practical,cost effective, or reliable for a human to review all of the resultingscreen capture representations in order to determine whether thesereviewers are busy or idle at various times. Thus, automated processingof these screen capture representations is necessary to achieve speedand efficiency.

The embodiments herein provide example procedures, computing devices,and systems for remote supervision of client device activity. The nextsection describes illustrative examples of such systems and devices.

2. Example Systems and Devices

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication system 100 for carrying outone or more of the embodiments described herein. Communication system100 may include computing devices. Herein, a “computing device” mayrefer to either a client device (e.g., a personal computer, tabletcomputer, wireless computing device, etc.), a server device (e.g., astandalone server or a networked cluster of server equipment), or someother type of computational platform.

Client device 102 may be any type of client device that is configured toexchange transmitted data with a server device 104 in accordance withthe embodiments described herein. For example, in FIG. 1, client device102 may communicate with server device 104 via one or more wired orwireless interfaces. In some cases, client device 102 and server device104 may communicate with one another via a local-area network.Alternatively, client device 102 and server device 104 may each residewithin a different network, and may communicate via a wide-area network,such as the Internet.

Client device 102 may include a user interface, a communicationinterface, a processor, and data storage (e.g., memory). Among otherthings, the data storage may contain instructions executable by theprocessor for carrying out one or more operations relating to the datasent to, or received from, server device 104. The user interface ofclient device 102 may include buttons, a touchscreen, a microphone,and/or any other elements for receiving inputs, as well as a speaker,one or more display screens, and/or any other elements for communicatingoutputs.

While client device 102 may execute various types of applications, onlytwo such applications are shown in FIG. 1. Screen capture module 110 isan application executing on client device 102 that performs screencaptures. Target application 112 also executes on client device 102, andis the application for which the user of client device 102 is beingsupervised. For example, target application 112 may be a document reviewapplication. As such, target application 112 may operate in conjunctionwith target application database 118. For example, target application112 may receive copies of documents from target application database118, and may transmit the results of the review of these documents totarget application database 118.

Server device 104 may be any entity or computing device arranged tocarry out the server operations described herein. Like client device102, server device 104 may include a user interface, a communicationinterface, a processor, and data storage. The data storage may containinstructions executable by the processor for carrying out one or moreoperations related to remotely supervising client device 102.

Server device 104 also executes screen capture processing module 114.This module may authenticate a user who logs in to screen capture module110 on client device 102, and may also receive screen capturerepresentations from client device 102. These screen capturerepresentations, and/or the results of processing the screen capturerepresentations, may be stored in activity database 116. Either in realtime or at a later point, server device 104 (or some other computingdevice) may develop, from the information in activity database 116, anactivity log for the reviewer using client device 102.

Additionally, screen capture processing module 114 may be incommunication with target application database 118. This communicationmay facilitate improving the accuracy of the busy and idle perioddetermination of client device 102, and/or reporting informationregarding these idle and busy periods. For example, screen captureprocessing module 114, or some other application, may be able tocorrelate busy periods with documents reviewed during those busy periodsand present this information in an integrated fashion.

While FIG. 1 depicts only one client device in communication with serverdevice 104, multiple client devices (e.g., tens, hundreds, or thousands)may be simultaneously supervised by server device 104. Further, in someembodiments, server device 104 may scale in size to one or more clustersof servers in order to handle the processing and/or storage requirementsof supervising many client devices.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of server device 104. In someexamples, components illustrated in FIG. 2 may be distributed acrossmultiple server devices. Nonetheless, for illustrative purposes,components are shown and described in FIG. 2 as part of server device104.

In some implementations, server device 104 may include a device platformor operating system (not shown). The device platform may includedifferent applications and an application framework, as well as variouskernels, schedulers, memory managers, libraries, and runtime entities.In some examples, other formats or systems may operate on server device104 as well.

Server device 104 may include a communication interface 202, a screencapture processing module 114, a processor 206, and data storage 208.Components illustrated in FIG. 2 may be linked together by acommunication bus 210. Server device 104 may also include additionalhardware to enable further functionality and/or operations.

Communication interface 202 may be configured to facilitate wired orwireless data communication according to one or more wired or wirelesscommunication standards or non-standard protocols. For example,communication interface 202 may include an Ethernet interface or a Wifiinterface. Other examples are also possible.

Data storage 208 may store program logic 212 that can be accessed andexecuted by processor 206. Program logic 212 may includemachine-readable instructions that, when executed by processor 206,cause server device 104 to carry out various operations and procedures.Data storage 208 may also store data 214 that may include data receivedvia communication interface 202. Data storage 208 may store additionaldata as well. Data storage 208 may be a non-transitory computer-readabledata medium, such as a hardware memory module.

Processor 206 may be any type of one or more microprocessors orgeneral-purpose processors. However, processor 206 may be integratedwith or include various types of co-processors, network processors,graphics processors, and/or digital logic.

Communication bus 210 is illustrated as a wired connection; however,wireless connections may also be used. For example, communication bus210 may be a wired serial bus, such as a universal serial bus (USB), ora parallel bus. Alternatively or additionally, communication bus 210 maybe a wireless connection using, e.g., short-range wireless radiotechnology, communication protocols described in IEEE 802.11 (includingany IEEE 802.11 revisions), or cellular technology, among otherpossibilities.

3. Example Message Flow Diagrams

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate an example message flow diagram ofcommunication between client device 102 and server device 104. In thisexample, server device 104 remotely supervises client device 102.

At step 300, client device 102 performs a login and/or authenticationtransaction with server device 104. As an example, the user of clientdevice 102 may provide a userid and password, and/or other credentials,to server device 104. Server device 104 may determine whether it hasaccess to an account associated with this userid, and if so, maydetermine whether the provided password matches that of the account.Assuming that this is the case, server device 104 may transmit anindication to client device 102 that the user has successfully logged into the account.

To carry out the login and/or authentication transaction of block 300,the user of client device 102 may use a native application (e.g., anapplication specifically compiled for the operating system of clientdevice 102). Alternatively, the user may log in via a web browser.

Regardless, the transaction of step 300 begins the supervision of clientdevice 102. As part of this supervision, server device 104 may providecertain supervision parameters to client device 102. For instance,server device 104 may instruct client device 102 to perform screencaptures every n seconds, where n could be 1, 5, 10, and so on. In somesituations, n may be less than 1. In some cases, a user of the clientdevice may be associated with a reliability factor, and the frequency atwhich the client device performs the screen captures may be inverselyproportional to the reliability factor. For instance, when a user ismore reliable (e.g., less idle time is recorded for the user), thefrequency may be decreased, but when a user is less reliable (e.g., moreidle time is recorded for the user) the frequency may be increased.

At each of steps 302 through 332, client device 102 may perform a screencapture of the graphical user interface of client device 102, and maytransmit a screen capture representation of this graphical userinterface to server device 104. If a window is active on the graphicaluser interface at the time of such a screen capture, the screen capturerepresentation may contain an image of the active window.

For example, at steps 302, 304, and 306, the user of client device 102was busy using the target application (e.g., a document reviewapplication or any other application being supervised). So, clientdevice 102 transmits screen capture representations 1, 2, and 3,respectively, in which the target application is the active window.

It should be noted that the screen capture representations might notexplicitly indicate the active window on client device 102. Instead,client device 102 may capture images of its screen to respectivegraphics files, and transmit copies of these graphics files to serverdevice 104. Server device 104 may process these graphics files, in realtime or at a later point, to determine the active window in each.

At steps 308 and 310, the user of client device 102 was idle (e.g.,using a non-target application). Accordingly, client device 102transmits screen capture representations 4 and 5, in which the targetapplication is not the active window (e.g., any application other thanthe target application may be the active window, or there may be noactive window).

In some implementations, the target application may include an “idle” or“pause” control (e.g., a user interface button). When activated by theuser, this control may cause the target application to start reportingthat it is idle and/or to display a particular message on the screen(e.g., “idle” or “paused”). When the user begins using the targetapplication again, the target application may report that it is busy,and the particular message may be removed from the screen. In someembodiments, when this control is activated, it may not count againstthe user's reliability factor, because the user is voluntarily admittingthat he or she is not working

At steps 312 and 314, the user of client device 102 was busy using thetarget application once again. Thus, client device 102 transmits screencapture representations 6 and 7, in which the target application is theactive window.

Turning to FIG. 3B, at block 316, the user of client device 102 wasidle. Consequently, client device 102 transmits screen capturerepresentation 8, in which the target application is not the activewindow.

At steps 318, 320, 322, and 324, the user of client device 102 was busyusing the target application. Hence, client device 102 transmits screencapture representations 9, 10, 11, and 12, in which the targetapplication is the active window.

At steps 326 and 328, the user of client device 102 was idle. However,client device 102 transmits screen capture representations 13 and 14, inwhich the target application is active. A possible explanation for thisdiscrepancy is that the user may have kept the target application windowopen and active, but might not have been interacting with the targetapplication this whole time. The user may have moved away from his orher desk, been talking to coworkers or friends, or using his or hersmartphone. In order to accurately measure the amount of time that theuser has been busy and idle, it is desirable for server device 104 to beable to account for these idle periods in which the target applicationis the active window.

At steps 330 and 332, the user of client device 102 was busy using thetarget application. So, client device 102 transmits screen capturerepresentations 15 and 16, in which the target application is the activewindow.

At block 334, client device 102 performs a logout transaction withserver device 104. Thus, the user of client device 102 indicates that heor she is done using the target application for the moment, and serverdevice 104 ends the supervision of client device 102 (e.g., clientdevice 102 does not transmit further screen capture representationsuntil a user once again logs in to server device 104).

Having received the 16 screen capture representations of FIGS. 3A and3B, it is desirable for server device 104 to be able to determine theperiods of time in which the user of client device 102 was idle andbusy. To do so, server 104 may analyze the received screen capturerepresentations and/or records from target application database 118.This analysis is discussed in the next section.

4. Identifying Busy and Idle Periods from Screen Capture Representations

FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting an example embodiment for identifyingbusy and idle periods of a user of a supervised client device based onscreen capture representations received from the client device. The flowchart of FIG. 4 may be used by server device 104 (or another device)either in real time (as screen capture representations are beingreceived) or at a later point (after a set of screen capturerepresentations have been received).

At block 400, server device 104 may examine the next screen capturerepresentation in a series of screen capture representations. Duringthis examination, server device 104 may attempt to identify an activewindow. At block 402, server device 104 may determine whether an activewindow has been found. If any active window has not been found, at block404 the state of the user is determined to be idle.

There are various reasons why an active window might not be found in ascreen capture representation of a graphical user interface. In somecases, the active window may be obscured by other windows on thegraphical user interface. In other cases, the user may have locked thescreen, closed all windows, or the user's client device may be operatinga screen saver application. In any of these cases, the active window maybe hidden or may not exist. Regardless of the cause, when an activewindow cannot be found, it is an indication that the user is idle.

If the active window is found, then at block 406, server device 104 maydetermine whether the active window is the target application. If thisis not the case, then at block 404 the state of the user is determinedto be idle. If this is the case, then at block 408, server device 104may determine whether the active window is essentially identical to thelast t active windows (e.g., the active windows in the previous t screencapture representations). If this is the case, then at block 404, thestate of the user is determined to be idle. Otherwise, at block 410, thestate of the user is determined to be busy. After the state of the useris determined, control is returned to block 400 so that the next screencapture representation can be examined.

Block 408 is a way for server device 104 to identify when a user leavesthe active window open with the target application, but does not performany substantive work. As noted above in the context of steps 326 and 328of FIG. 3B, the user may be doing something other than working.

Use of the procedure illustrated in FIG. 4 may take place as follows.From the screen capture representations of blocks 302, 304, and 306, and308, server device 104 can determine that the user of client device 102was operating the target application at the times of screen captures 1,2, and 3, but not at the time of screen capture 4. Therefore, serverdevice 104 may conclude that the user was busy from approximately thetime of screen capture 1 until approximately the time of screen capture4.

From the screen capture representations of blocks 308, 310, and 312,server device 104 can determine that the user of client device 102 wasnot operating the target application at the times of screen captures 4and 5, but was at the time of screen capture 6. Therefore, server device104 may conclude that the user was idle from approximately the time ofscreen capture 4 until approximately the time of screen capture 6.

From the screen capture representations of blocks 312, 314, and 316,server device 104 can determine that the user of client device 102 wasoperating the target application at the times of screen captures 6 and7, but not at the time of screen capture 8. Therefore, server device 104may conclude that the user was busy from approximately the time ofscreen capture 6 until approximately the time of screen capture 8.

From the screen capture representations of blocks 316 and 318, serverdevice 104 can determine that the user of client device 102 was notoperating the target application at the time of screen capture 8, butwas at the time of screen capture 9. Therefore, server device 104 mayconclude that the user was idle from approximately the time of screencapture 8 until approximately the time of screen capture 9.

From the screen capture representations of blocks 318, 320, 322, 324,326, 328, 330, and 332, server device 104 can determine that the user ofclient device 102 was operating the target application at the times ofscreen captures 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. However, serverdevice 104 may be able to determine whether a particular active windowis essentially identical to the last t active windows. For instance,server device 104 may be configured with an idle timer calibrated to aduration of t contiguous screen captures. Using the idle timer, serverdevice 104 may conclude that a user has become idle after t contiguousscreen captures that are essentially identical to one another.

If, as an example, t is 4, and server device 104 determines that screencaptures 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 are essentially identical to oneanother while screen captures 15 and 16 are not, then server device 104may conclude that the user was busy from approximately the time ofscreen capture 9 until approximately the time of screen capture 13, idlefrom approximately the time of screen capture 13 to approximately thetime of screen capture 15, and then busy again from approximately thetime of screen capture 15 to approximately the time of logouttransaction 334.

The value oft may be selected based on the frequency at which clientdevice 102 performs screen captures, as well as the task being performedby the user of client device 102. If t is too low, the user may beconsidered to be idle when he or she is reading or otherwise consideringat item on the screen of client device 102. On the other hand, if t istoo high, the user may be considered to be active when he or she isidle. For document review applications, reasonable values oft may equateto 15-45 seconds of time, though other values oft may be used instead.

With access to target application database 118 (most likely via anapplication programming interface (API)), screen capture processingmodule 114 may be able to obtain more busy/idle period information. Forinstance, assuming that target application database 118 providestimestamp information and its clock is synchronized with the rest of theworld, this timestamp information can be used to enhance or verify thebusy/idle periods determined by screen capture processing module 114.For instance, target application database 118 may provide informationsuch as document length and time that the user spent reviewing eachdocument. This information may be used to improve the accuracy of thedetermined busy/idle periods.

In FIG. 4, the operations of identifying the active window, determiningwhether the active window is the target application, and determiningwhen the active window is essentially identical to the last t activewindows may be accomplished in various ways. The following subsectionsprovide example embodiments for each of these operations.

A. Identifying the Active Window

FIG. 5A depicts an example screen capture representation 500 of thegraphical user interface of client device 102. Screen capturerepresentation 500 may include a non-target application operating inwindow 502, another non-target application operating in window 504, andthe target application operating in window 506. Window 506 may beoverlaid on top of window 502 and window 504, thereby indicating thatwindow 506 is the active window.

Some client devices may support screen capture operations that capturejust the active window. Thus, on these client devices, screen capturerepresentations might include only the active window. For instance, onsuch a client device, screen capture representation 500 may consist ofonly window 506, and therefore the active window is readily identified.

However, other client devices might not support such a feature. Instead,these client devices may represent the entirety of a graphical userinterface in each screen capture representation. It is desirable forserver device 104 to be able to identify the active window from a screencapture representation such as screen capture representation 500.

One possible way of doing so is to slide rectangular outlines of varyingsizes over the screen capture representation. When one of therectangular outlines surrounds and/or adjoins all four borders of arectangular shape in the screen capture representation, this rectangularshape may be determined to be the active window.

As an illustrative example, consider FIG. 5B. This figure depicts threerectangular outlines surrounding various parts of screen capturerepresentation 500. Rectangular outline 516 and rectangular outline 518do not surround or adjoin all four borders of a rectangular shape.However, rectangular outline 520 surrounds and adjoins the four bordersof window 506. Consequently, window 506 may be identified as the activewindow.

In some embodiments, sliding rectangular outlines of varying sizes overthe screen capture representation may involve selecting anominally-sized small rectangular outline (e.g., 150×150 pixels) andsliding it horizontally over the screen capture representation atvarious vertical levels (e.g., 0 pixels from the top of the screencapture representation, 50 pixels from the top of the screen capturerepresentation, 100 pixels from the top of the screen capturerepresentation, etc.). If the active window is not found, then the sameor a similar process may be repeated using a larger rectangular outline(e.g., 200×200 pixels). This technique may continue until the activewindow is identified or a rectangular outline the same size as thescreen capture representation is used.

If this technique fails to identify an active window, the user may havecleared his or her screen, closed all windows, or a screen saver may beoperating. As such, the user's state should be considered to be idle,per block 404.

B. Determining Whether the Active Window is the Target Application

Once the active window is determined, server device 104 may nextdetermine whether the active window is the target application. One wayof doing so is based on a title bar which is typically located at thetop of a window.

For instance, window 506 includes title bar 508 containing the textstring “target application”. Server device 104 may perform opticalcharacter recognition on title bar 508 to derive this text string. Fromthis text string, the application of window 506 may be identified, andserver device 104 may further determine whether the identifiedapplication is the target application.

However, if the application of window 506 cannot be determined from thetext string, or if window 506 does not include text in its title bar,server device 104 may consider other factors. For instance, if thetarget application displays a particular logo or graphical pattern inone or more locations, server device 104 may search the window 506 forthis logo.

As an example, in FIG. 5A, window 506 contains a logo in area 510,located at the top left of this window. Server device 104 may compare aknown logo used by the target application to area 510. If the known logomatches part of area 510 (e.g., the logo therein), then server device104 may determine that window 506 is the target application.

Still, some target applications might not use logos or other types ofidentifying graphics or images, or server device 104 might not be ableto find a logo in window 506. In these cases, server device 104 mayconsider the layout, color pattern, text size, graphical content, andperhaps other factors of window 506 as a whole. For instance, inaddition to a logo in area 510, window 506 also contains a document(image, text or both) in area 512 and a menu in area 514.

In particular, server device 104 may encode a representation of thefactors of window 506 as a vector. Server device 104 may also haveaccess to a set of vectors each associated with a particularapplication. This set of vectors may be stored in activity database 116,for instance. Server device 104, may compare the vector associated withwindow 506 with one or more of the stored vectors, and determine thestored vector that is closest to the vector associated with window 506.Server device 104 may further determine that the application of window506 is the application associated this closest stored vector. Varioustypes of machine learning techniques may be employed to determine thecloseness of the stored vectors to the vector associated with window506.

C. Determining Whether Active Windows are Essentially Identical

A challenge in determining whether two or more active windows areessentially identical is that the active window may exhibit minorchanges that are not indicative of user activity. For instance, theactive window may include a clock that changes once per second or onceper minute. Alternatively or additionally, if the active window containsa background image or animation, these items may change from time totime without user input. On the other hand, insubstantial user input,such as a mouse pointer moving or a few keys being pressed on a keyboardmight not be indicative of the user actually working Thus, if two ormore active windows remain mostly identical with very small differences,they may be considered essentially identical. As one possibleembodiment, if more than a threshold percentage of the pixels on twoactive windows are identical, the active windows may be deemed to beessentially identical. This threshold percentage may be (but is notlimited to) 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, 99% etc. When making this determination,certain portions of the active window that are known to change withoutuser input (e.g., an animation box) may be ignored.

5. Example Dashboard Interface

FIG. 6 depicts an example dashboard interface 600. Dashboard interface600 allows an administrator of the target application to visuallyinspect the busy and idle periods of one or more users of the targetapplication. The information displayed in dashboard interface 600 may bederived from information stored in activity database 116 and/or targetapplication database 118, for example.

Area 602 of dashboard interface 600 displays a list of selectable users.While the list shown in area 602 includes only four users, listsincluding many more users could be supported. In some cases, these usersmay be arranged by task, by their performance, or according to one ormore other factors. FIG. 6 depicts the user “Bob” being selected.

Area 604 of dashboard interface 600 displays, for a particular week, asummary of the hours worked per day by the selected user. The weekdisplayed may be the current week or the previous week, and other weeksmay be selectable. As an example, for each day of the week, area 604provides a bar chart showing the total number of hours the selected userworked (i.e., the sum of time in the user's busy periods and idleperiods), as well as the total number of billable hours for the selecteduser (i.e., the sum of time in the user's busy periods only). Asexpected, the user's billable time per day is less than the user's totaltime worked per day. Area 604 also allows a day of the displayed week tobe selected. In FIG. 6, Monday (“MON”) is selected.

Area 606 of dashboard interface 600 displays the selected user's busyand idle periods for the selected day. For purposes of simplicity, area606 only shows a total of five busy/idle periods, but a dashboardinterface arranged in accordance with the embodiments herein mightdisplay more busy/idle periods (e.g., using a scroll bar). Area 606demonstrates that the selected user was logged in to the targetapplication for 159 minutes between 8:36 am and 11:15 am on Monday, Feb.9, 2015, but was idle for 20 of those minutes. Thus, the user's billabletime for this epoch is 139 minutes.

In some embodiments, the individual busy and/or idle periods displayedin area 606 may be further associated with the screen capturerepresentations from those respective time periods. As an example,dashboard interface 600 may allow each time period to be selected, andin response may display a list of the associated screen capturerepresentations. Each of these screen capture representations may beviewable. In this way, the efficacy of the remote supervision procedurescan be verified. For instance, if a user disputes the determined numberof billable hours for a particular time period, the screen capturerepresentations from this time period may be retrieved for examination.

FIG. 6 depicts just one possible dashboard interface. Other types ofinterfaces may be possible, and these other interfaces may containdifferent information arranged in a different fashion. Some dashboardinterfaces may be user-facing, in that they provide information tailoredto the user of a client device, whereas other dashboard interfaces maybe administrator-facing, in that they provide information tailored tothe administrator of a server device and/or the target application.

6. Example Operations

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating example embodiments. The embodimentsillustrated by FIG. 7 may be carried out by a computing device, such asserver device 104. However, the embodiments can be carried out by othertypes of devices or device subsystems. Further, the embodiments may becombined with one another and may incorporate any aspect or featuredisclosed in this specification or the accompanying drawings.

Block 700 of FIG. 7 may involve receiving a series of at least twoscreen capture representations of a graphical user interface on a clientdevice. Block 702 may involve determining a first active window for afirst screen capture representation of the series and a second activewindow for a second screen capture representation of the series. Thefirst screen capture representation may have been screen captured by theclient device at a first time and the second screen capturerepresentation may have been screen captured by the client device at asecond time.

Block 704 may involve identifying a first application associated withthe first active window and a second application associated with thesecond active window. The first application may have been executing inthe first active window at the first time and the second application mayhave been executing in the second active window at the second time. Atleast one of the first application or the second application may be apre-determined target application.

Block 706 may involve, possibly based on the first application executingat the first time and the second application executing at the secondtime, determining an activity log for the client device, wherein theactivity log identifies one or more idle periods and one or more busyperiods for the pre-determined target application.

In some embodiments, the first screen capture representation may consistof the first active window and the second screen capture representationmay consist of the second active window. In other embodiments, the firstscreen capture representation may include more than the first activewindow, and determining the first active window includes (i) slidingrectangular outlines of varying sizes over the first screen capturerepresentation, (ii) identifying when one of the rectangular outlinessurrounds four borders of a rectangular shape in the first screencapture representation, and (iii) determining that the rectangular shapeis the first active window.

In some embodiments, identifying the first application associated withthe first active window may involve performing character recognition ontext in a title bar of the first active window. The recognizedcharacters may identify the first application. Alternatively oradditionally, identifying the first application associated with thefirst active window may involve recognizing a logo within the firstactive window. The recognized logo may identify the first application.Alternatively or additionally, identifying the first applicationassociated with the first active window may involve (i) classifyingcharacteristics of the first active window into a vector, (ii) comparingthe vector to a database of vectors, wherein vectors in the databaserepresent characteristics of particular applications, and (iii) possiblybased on the comparison, selecting one of the particular applications asthe first application. The characteristics of the first active windowmay include text and color patterns within the active window, and thecharacteristics of particular applications may include text and colorpatterns of the particular applications.

In some embodiments, a user of the client device may be associated witha reliability factor. A frequency at which the client device performsthe screen captures may be inversely proportional to the reliabilityfactor.

In some embodiments, determining the activity log for the client devicemay involve (i) determining that the first screen capture representationbegins a contiguous subset of the screen capture representations, eachcontaining respective active windows identified as the pre-determinedtarget application, (ii) determining that the second screen capturerepresentation ends the contiguous subset of the screen capturerepresentations, and (iii) identifying, in the activity log, from thefirst time to the second time as a busy period.

In some embodiments, an idle timer may be calibrated to a duration of tcontiguous screen captures. Determining the activity log for the clientdevice may involve (i) determining that an ith screen capturerepresentation begins a contiguous subset of m essentially identicalscreen capture representations, each containing respective activewindows identified as the pre-determined target application, (ii)determining that a (i+m)th screen capture representation ends thecontiguous subset of the screen capture representations, where m isgreater than t, (iii) identifying, in the activity log, a duration ofthe ith screen capture representation through the (i+t)th screen capturerepresentation as a busy period, and (iv) identifying, in the activitylog, a duration of the (i+t)th screen capture representation to the(i+m)th screen capture representation as an idle period.

In some embodiments, determining the activity log for the client devicemay involve (i) determining that the first screen capture representationbegins a contiguous subset of the screen capture representations, nonecontaining respective active windows identified as being thepre-determined target application, (ii) determining that the secondscreen capture representation ends the contiguous subset of the screencapture representations, and (iii) identifying, in the activity log,from the first time to the second time as an idle period.

In some embodiments, the server device may, based on the activity log,determine a first total time that a user of the client device used theclient device and a second total time that the user actively used thepre-determined target application on the client device. The first totaltime may include idle and busy periods, and the second total time mayinclude only busy periods, where the first total time is greater thanthe second total time.

7. Conclusion

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those enumeratedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and functionsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations, all of which are explicitly contemplatedherein.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, functionsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrent or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or functions can be used with any of the ladder diagrams, scenarios,and flow charts discussed herein, and these ladder diagrams, scenarios,and flow charts can be combined with one another, in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical functions or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including adisk, hard drive, or other storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer-readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory, processor cache, and random accessmemory (RAM). The computer readable media can also includenon-transitory computer readable media that store program code and/ordata for longer periods of time. Thus, the computer readable media mayinclude secondary or persistent long term storage, like read only memory(ROM), optical or magnetic disks, compact-disc read only memory(CD-ROM), for example. The computer readable media can also be any othervolatile or non-volatile storage systems. A computer readable medium canbe considered a computer readable storage medium, for example, or atangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a serverdevice, a series of at least two screen capture representations of agraphical user interface on a client device; determining a first activewindow for a first screen capture representation of the series and asecond active window for a second screen capture representation of theseries, wherein the first screen capture representation was screencaptured by the client device at a first time and the second screencapture representation was screen captured by the client device at asecond time; identifying a first application associated with the firstactive window and a second application associated with the second activewindow, wherein the first application was executing in the first activewindow at the first time and the second application was executing in thesecond active window at the second time, and wherein at least one of thefirst application or the second application is a pre-determined targetapplication; and based on the first application executing at the firsttime and the second application executing at the second time,determining, by the server device, an activity log for the clientdevice, wherein the activity log identifies one or more idle periods andone or more busy periods for the pre-determined target application. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the first screen capture representationconsists of the first active window and the second screen capturerepresentation consists of the second active window.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first screen capture representation comprises morethan the first active window, and wherein determining the first activewindow comprises: sliding rectangular outlines of varying sizes over thefirst screen capture representation; identifying when one of therectangular outlines surrounds four borders of a rectangular shape inthe first screen capture representation; and determining that therectangular shape is the first active window.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein identifying the first application associated with the firstactive window comprises performing character recognition on text in atitle bar of the first active window, wherein the recognized charactersidentify the first application.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinidentifying the first application associated with the first activewindow comprises recognizing a logo within the first active window,wherein the recognized logo identifies the first application.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein identifying the first application associatedwith the first active window comprises: classifying characteristics ofthe first active window into a vector; comparing the vector to adatabase of vectors, wherein vectors in the database representcharacteristics of particular applications; and based on the comparison,selecting one of the particular applications as the first application.7. The method of claim 6, wherein the characteristics of the firstactive window include text and color patterns within the active window,and wherein the characteristics of particular applications include textand color patterns of the particular applications.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a user of the client device is associated with areliability factor, and wherein a frequency at which the client deviceperforms the screen captures is inversely proportional to thereliability factor.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining theactivity log for the client device comprises: determining that the firstscreen capture representation begins a contiguous subset of the screencapture representations, the screen capture representations in thesubset containing respective active windows identified as thepre-determined target application; determining that the second screencapture representation ends the contiguous subset of the screen capturerepresentations; and identifying, in the activity log, from the firsttime to the second time as a busy period.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein an idle timer is calibrated to a duration of t contiguous screencaptures, and wherein determining the activity log for the client devicecomprises: determining that an ith screen capture representation of theseries begins a contiguous subset of m essentially identical screencapture representations, the screen capture representations in thesubset containing respective active windows identified as thepre-determined target application; determining that a (i+m)th screencapture representation ends the contiguous subset of the screen capturerepresentations, wherein m is greater than t; identifying, in theactivity log, a duration of the ith screen capture representationthrough the (i+t)th screen capture representation as a busy period; andidentifying, in the activity log, a duration of the (i+t)th screencapture representation to the (i+m)th screen capture representation asan idle period.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining theactivity log for the client device comprises: determining that the firstscreen capture representation begins a contiguous subset of the screencapture representations, none of the screen capture representations inthe subset containing respective active windows identified as being thepre-determined target application; determining that the second screencapture representation ends the contiguous subset of the screen capturerepresentations; and identifying, in the activity log, from the firsttime to the second time as an idle period.
 12. The method of claim 1,further comprising: based on the activity log, determining a first totaltime that a user of the client device used the client device and asecond total time that the user actively used the pre-determined targetapplication on the client device, wherein the first total time includesidle and busy periods, wherein the second total time includes only busyperiods, and wherein the first total time is greater than the secondtotal time.
 13. An article of manufacture including a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructionsthat, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing deviceto perform operations comprising: receiving a series of at least twoscreen capture representations of a graphical user interface on a clientdevice; determining a first active window for a first screen capturerepresentation of the series and a second active window for a secondscreen capture representation of the series, wherein the first screencapture representation was screen captured by the client device at afirst time and the second screen capture representation was screencaptured by the client device at a second time; identifying a firstapplication associated with the first active window and a secondapplication associated with the second active window, wherein the firstapplication was executing in the first active window at the first timeand the second application was executing in the second active window atthe second time, and wherein at least one of the first application orthe second application is a pre-determined target application; and basedon the first application executing at the first time and the secondapplication executing at the second time, determining an activity logfor the client device, wherein the activity log identifies one or moreidle periods and one or more busy periods for the pre-determined targetapplication.
 14. The article of manufacture of claim 13, wherein thefirst screen capture representation comprises more than the first activewindow, and wherein determining the first active window comprises:sliding rectangular outlines of varying sizes over the first screencapture representation; identifying when one of the rectangular outlinessurrounds four borders of a rectangular shape in the first screencapture representation; and determining that the rectangular shape isthe first active window.
 15. The article of manufacture of claim 13,wherein identifying the first application associated with the firstactive window comprises performing character recognition on text in atitle bar of the first active window, wherein the recognized charactersidentify the first application.
 16. The article of manufacture of claim13, wherein identifying the first application associated with the firstactive window comprises recognizing a logo within the first activewindow, wherein the recognized logo identifies the first application.17. A computing device comprising: at least one processor; memory; andprogram instructions, stored in the memory, that upon execution by theat least one processor cause the computing device to perform operationscomprising: receiving a series of at least two screen capturerepresentations of a graphical user interface on a client device;determining a first active window for a first screen capturerepresentation of the series and a second active window for a secondscreen capture representation of the series, wherein the first screencapture representation was screen captured by the client device at afirst time and the second screen capture representation was screencaptured by the client device at a second time; identifying a firstapplication associated with the first active window and a secondapplication associated with the second active window, wherein the firstapplication was executing in the first active window at the first timeand the second application was executing in the second active window atthe second time, and wherein at least one of the first application orthe second application is a pre-determined target application; and basedon the first application executing at the first time and the secondapplication executing at the second time, determining an activity logfor the client device, wherein the activity log identifies one or moreidle periods and one or more busy periods for the pre-determined targetapplication.
 18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the firstscreen capture representation comprises more than the first activewindow, and wherein determining the first active window comprises:sliding rectangular outlines of varying sizes over the first screencapture representation; identifying when one of the rectangular outlinessurrounds four borders of a rectangular shape in the first screencapture representation; and determining that the rectangular shape isthe first active window.
 19. The computing device of claim 17, whereinidentifying the first application associated with the first activewindow comprises performing character recognition on text in a title barof the first active window, wherein the recognized characters identifythe first application.
 20. The computing device of claim 17, whereinidentifying the first application associated with the first activewindow comprises recognizing a logo within the first active window,wherein the recognized logo identifies the first application.